BIG Grants Equals BIG Dance

Sixty-six grants, totaling more than $1.3 million, were distributed in the National Endowment for the Arts' second round of 2014 Art Works grants. Here are some of the dance projects that those grants will help fund.

NORDC/NOBA Center for Dance in New Orleans, Louisiana--a partnership between the New Orleans Recreational Development Commission and the New Orleans Ballet Association, now in its 21st year--received $50,000 to continue two tuition-free youth programs. One is an after-school open-track program for children ages 8 to 18. The second is for pre-professional students, ages 9 to 18, and requires an audition.

Ballet Tech students

The grant will also fund the organization's movement program for seniors. "When NORDC was rebuilding after Katrina, they asked us to implement a program for senior citizens," says Jenny Hamilton, executive director of NOBA. "Now we have 150 people in five NORDC centers who come twice a week for an hour of stretching and moving."

Ballet Tech was awarded $50,000 to continue its program of tuition-free ballet classes, in collaboration with the NYC Department of Education. Since 1978, Ballet Tech students in grades four through eight have received both pre-professional dance training and standardized academic education. This year, Ballet Tech will partner with the Professional Performing Arts School to open the program to high school students.

The Limón Company in "Psalm"

With its $50,000 grant, the José Limón Dance Foundation will reconstruct four works by Limón to be presented at an international Limón Festival in October 2015 at The Joyce Theater in New York: Dialogues (1951), The Traitor (1954), Orfeo (1972) and Carlota (1972). "Even the diehard Limón fans haven't seen some of these," says Juan José Escalante, executive director of the Limón Foundation. "We're also looking to invite several companies that have Limón pieces in their repertories to come to New York and perform those pieces in the festival." The festival will coincide with the company's 70th anniversary.